Futurist challenges connected health companies to disrupt health care

BOSTON – Chunka Mui has challenged connected health companies to disrupt the health care space by thinking bigger and learning faster, while embracing the gap that exists between capability and possibility.

“You are the change agents,” said Mui, a futurist and innovation advisor, at the recent Connected Health Conference. “You are shaping the future of health care and connected health.”

As the managing director at Devil’s Advocate Group, Mui helps companies stress-test their innovation strategies. He has researched thousands of innovation successes and failures across a broad spectrum of industries, and in his session at the CHC, he applied his findings to health care. He presented three main strategies that connected health companies should use to position themselves as leaders:

Embrace the gap between what companies tend to do and what they could do with technology. “We tend to focus on what we know and change really slowly,” Mui said. “Somewhere, somehow, someone will figure out what’s possible, as opposed to what’s already being done today—those are the companies that will come in and disrupt health care.”

Think big. Mui said that successful companies explore a wide range of possible solutions to a problem. Using diabetes treatment as an example, he said the current model focuses more on already diagnosed patients struggling with the disease, and not enough on prevention in people identified as pre-diabetic. “We have a slew of technologies that may enable a different kind of problem to be solved,” Mui said. “Can we embrace that gap?”

Learn faster. Successful innovators do not fall in love with the big ideas and base their efforts on hope and aspiration, Mui said. Successful innovators base their efforts on data and experience, and have a process for learning. “The thing to remember about innovation is that it’s not about the first mover or fast follower,” he said. “It’s about the fastest learner—they’re the ones that win.”